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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (2 November 2023) | Viewed by 10044

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Dr. Tao Ding

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Guest Editor

School of Economics, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230601, China
Interests: carbon peaking and carbon neutral policies; energy and environment; economic development quality evaluation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Carbon emissions account for 65% of total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and have risen dramatically in recent decades (Hassiba and Linke, 2017). Huge amounts of GHG emissions contribute to global warming, which not only threatens natural ecosystem balance but also has an impact on human health. Given the dangers of global warming, reducing carbon emissions has become a major concern for the international community. Several governments and international organizations are putting forward various initiatives and agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Raux et al., 2015; Chen and Hu., 2018). For example, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), created by the United Nations in 1992, the European Commission's European Climate Change Programme (ECCP), launched in 2000, and the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS), established in 2005. These policies are designed to reduce CO2 emissions by limiting human socioeconomic activities.

Carbon emissions are generated as an outcome of human socioeconomic activities. Massive amounts of fossil energy are consumed in urban operations, transportation, and especially industrial production. Petrochemical resources, on the other hand, are an important material foundation for economic and social development. High industrial energy consumption, on the other hand, will emit large amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming. As can be seen, energy-saving measures such as promoting new energy-saving technologies and improving energy efficiency are becoming increasingly important. However, there is still a need to explore the path for reducing carbon emissions for many countries that are still on track to meet their carbon neutrality targets.

This special issue aims to create a platform for scholars across the world to exchange ideas from different perspectives, explore the current status, share experiences from countries, and form new insights on the methods for carbon emission reduction and energy conservation.

Dr. Tao Ding
Guest Editor

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Keywords

carbon emission reduction
energy conservation
carbon neutrality target

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 246 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Does Carbon Emissions Efficiency Affect OFDI? Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

by Fang Chen and Wenya Sun

Sustainability 2023, 15(17), 13145; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151713145 - 1 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 942

Abstract

With the in-depth promotion of the “double carbon” strategy, the effectiveness of the green and low-carbon transition is not only fundamental to breaking the environmental shackles of domestic economic development, but is also an inevitable choice for Chinese enterprises to participate in international economic cooperation in the context of global climate change. However, the relationship between green low-carbon transition effects and outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has not been adequately studied, and the transmission mechanism is not yet clear. Based on the above research gaps, this study made an empirical analysis on how carbon emissions efficiency affects companies’ OFDI using the OFDI data of China’s A-share-listed companies and matching carbon emissions efficiency data with the cities where listed companies are located, from 2007 to 2019. This study found that carbon emissions efficiency increases the possibility of OFDI, and carbon emissions efficiency significantly expanded the scale of OFDI through reducing financing costs and improving technological innovation, and the regression results are all significantly positive at the 1% level. We used ventilation coefficients as the instrumental variable, and the 2SLS results showed that this correlation is still robust. The heterogeneity analysis found that the role of carbon efficiency in promoting OFDI is more prominent for SOEs, large companies, clean companies and companies in competitive markets. In addition, financial development can positively moderate the influence of carbon emissions efficiency on OFDI, and carbon emissions efficiency deepens the embeddedness of the investment market compared to the degree of diversification of the corporate OFDI market. This research deepens the theoretical study on the factors of China’s OFDI, and provides insights for the government to coordinate carbon emissions efficiency and OFDI growth to achieve sustainable development. This study proposes continuing to promote clean production enterprises to shape their own sustainable development advantages, continuing to optimise the market environment and talent development environment, grasping the financing policy and technical support of the two important means, and accelerating the internationalisation of self-owned brands. These are the urgent priorities in driving Chinese enterprises to ‘go global’. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Emission Reduction and Energy Conservation Methods)

19 pages, 1939 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Energy Consumption, Income, and Population Growth on CO₂ Emissions: Evidence from NARDL and Machine Learning Models

by Mansoor Ahmed, Wen Huan, Nafees Ali, Ahsan Shafi, Muhsan Ehsan, Kamal Abdelrahman, Anser Ali Khan, Saiq Shakeel Abbasi and Mohammed S. Fnais

Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 11956; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511956 - 3 Aug 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1901

Abstract

With population and income growth, the need for energy has increased in developing and emerging economies, which has inevitably led to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂e). This paper investigates the impact of energy consumption on CO₂e influenced by population growth, energy consumption per capita, and income. In particular, this paper investigates whether or not an increase in energy consumption, energy intensity, energy consumption per capita, population growth, and income impacts CO₂e in China, India, and the USA. The study applied the non-linear Autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) and machine learning techniques. We found a significant impact of energy consumption per capita on the CO₂ emissions in China, India, and USA. Furthermore, the results revealed that, when income increased, CO₂ emissions increased in India, but decreased in the USA. The results confirmed that population growth increases CO₂ emissions only in India. The results revealed that a decrease in energy intensity significantly improves the environmental quality in China and India. Finally, we forecasted the CO₂e trend from 2017 to 2025. The results revealed an upcoming increase in CO₂e levels in China and India. Conversely, the forecasted results demonstrated a downward trend of CO₂e emissions in the USA. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Emission Reduction and Energy Conservation Methods)

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22 pages, 1049 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Incentive Mechanisms for Thermal Power Generation Enterprises with Conflicting Tasks: Electricity Production versus Carbon Emission Reduction

by Dahai Li, Huan Wang and Yang Li

Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10420; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310420 - 1 Jul 2023

Viewed by 1007

Abstract

Coal combustion remains the primary source of thermal power generation, contributing to approximately half of China’s electricity supply. As China strives towards the goals of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”, the issue of carbon emissions ascends to critical importance in the thermal power industry. The delicate balance between preserving electricity production capacity and curbing carbon emissions presents a considerable challenge to thermal power enterprise management. This paper models the incentive and organizational dilemmas arising from these conflicting tasks in thermal power generation enterprises, and compares the advantages and disadvantages of single-agent and multi-agent systems. Two practical scenarios are examined: (1) the “Two Mountains” theory propounded by the Chinese government, which attaches equal importance to thermal power production and carbon emission control, and (2) the 2022 Chinese summer electricity crisis, in which thermal power production takes on a dominant role. Through comparative static analysis of both single-agent and multi-agent models under these circumstances, this study concludes that, in the first scenario, the multi-agent model outperforms the single-agent model by enhancing agent effort levels and bolstering government revenue. However, when power supply emerges as the chief concern of thermal power enterprises, centralized management of a single-agent is more effective. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Emission Reduction and Energy Conservation Methods)

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15 pages, 330 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impacts of Environmental Pollution and Digital Economy on the New Energy Industry

by Xiaohong Liu

Sustainability 2023, 15(12), 9262; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129262 - 8 Jun 2023

Viewed by 1287

Abstract

This study explores the impacts of environmental pollution and the digital economy on the new energy industry with panel data on 30 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2020. Mean group regression was performed, and fully modified OLS and dynamic OLS were conducted to check the robustness of the results. The authors reached two conclusions: (1) environmental pollution exerts significant negative impacts on the new energy industry. For every 1% increase in environmental pollution, the level of development of the new energy industry drops by 0.1658%. In other words, environmental pollution levels down the new energy industry. (2) The digital economy produces significant positive impacts on the new energy industry. For every 1% increase in the digital economy, the level of development of the new energy industry rises by 0.4262%. That is, the digital economy levels up the new energy industry. Our policy recommendations place equal stress on both the prevention and the control of environmental pollution, strengthening digital infrastructure, enhancing the government’s digital governance and service capabilities, protecting consumer rights, and replacing conventional energy with new energy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Emission Reduction and Energy Conservation Methods)

16 pages, 2972 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Does the Industrial Digitization Affect Carbon Emission Efficiency? Empirical Measurement Evidence from China’s Industry

by Ren-Long Zhang, Xiao-Hong Liu and Wei-Bo Jiang

Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 9043; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15119043 - 2 Jun 2023

Viewed by 1228

Abstract

Based on the panel data of China’s industrial carbon emissions from 2015 to 2022, the S-SBM model is scientifically used to measure the industrial carbon emission efficiency, and a spatial model is constructed to empirically analyze the spatial effect of industrial digitalization on carbon emission efficiency. From the regional perspective, it is interesting to find that industrial digitization has shown an overall downward trend of the central, western and northeastern regions showing a roughly N-shaped trend of change. From an industry perspective, we also find that industrial digitization has a relatively high overall impact on the carbon emissions performance of the mining industry with significant changes in the performance of electricity and heat and gas and water production and supply industries. Therefore, the experimental results effectively provide the substantive empirical evidence for policy makers on how to best promote the development of industrial digitization and strengthen the effective application of digital technology affecting carbon emission control in China. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Emission Reduction and Energy Conservation Methods)

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19 pages, 1099 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Does Sustainable Development in Resource-Based Cities Effectively Reduce Carbon Emissions? An Empirical Study Based on Annual Panel Data from 59 Prefecture-Level Cities in China

by Chenghao Zhao, Guangrui Chen, Pengfei Wang, Tao Ding and Xinru Wang

Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 8078; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15108078 - 16 May 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1137

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of the impact of the National Plan for the Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities (2013–2020) on urban carbon emissions and explores the underlying mechanisms of this policy’s effect. Panel data from 59 prefecture-level cities in the Shandong, Henan, Hunan, and Hubei provinces in China for the period between 2007 and 2019 were used to perform a DID (difference-in-differences) method analysis and conduct various robustness tests, including counterfactual testing, a PSM-DID (propensity score matching-difference-in-differences) method analysis, and a placebo test. The findings demonstrate that The Plan effectively reduces urban carbon emissions, with its effects varying across provinces and classes of resource-based cities. Specifically, Henan Province shows the most significant effect in reducing carbon emissions compared to the other three provinces. The Plan is more successful in regenerative and recessionary resource-based cities than in mature ones. Furthermore, it reduces carbon emissions by decreasing cities’ dependence on resources, improving citizens’ quality of life, and limiting the pace of industrial development. This article provides important policy implications for promoting the sustainable development of China’s resource-based cities and achieving carbon emission reduction goals amidst the carbon peak and carbon neutrality contexts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Emission Reduction and Energy Conservation Methods)

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19 pages, 7469 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on the Carbon Emission Reduction Effect of Green Taxation under China’s Fiscal Decentralization

by Wei Dong, Xiaomi Hou and Guowei Qin

Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4591; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054591 - 4 Mar 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1684

Abstract

Using the spatial Durbin model, this study investigates, systematically, the link between green taxes and carbon emissions and the influence of green taxation on carbon emissions under fiscal decentralization in the context of the shift in performance evaluation of the local government. The results demonstrate a positive correlation at different stages of the performance appraisal. Fiscal expenditure has dual effects on carbon emissions at different stages of environmental assessments. It additionally strengthens the positive effects of green taxation on carbon emissions, with improvements in economic development. Further analysis demonstrates an interaction between fiscal decentralization and environmental taxes and fees, effectively reducing carbon emissions. The interaction between fiscal decentralization and other green taxes, except the environmental bonded tax, has no significant impact on emissions. This study finally proposes a series of policy recommendations to reduce carbon dioxide from the perspective of reasonable green tax formulation and fiscal decentralization. These include: increasing environmental taxes, modifying present resource and environmental protection taxes, adopting new environmental taxes gradually, enhancing the current tax system, and enhancing the “greening” of tax income. In addition, this study proposes reforms to the performance evaluation method within the present fiscal decentralization framework. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Emission Reduction and Energy Conservation Methods)

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